New grants toward land purchases now available in 87 West Bank settlements, drawing ire of Left.

New grants toward buying land are now available in 667 Israeli communities –
including 87 West Bank settlements – on the national priority map.

The
Housing and Construction Ministry and the Israel Lands Authority prepared the
list of communities, which constitutes an amended version of the 2009 national
priority map. It was then passed onto the Treasury.

On Thursday, Finance
Minister Yuval Steinitz signed the map, in a move that is necessary to free up
the grant money, which can significantly reduce the cost of land.

The
intent is to assist communities located in the periphery, as well as those in
the line of fire or with a poor population.

The amended list created a
political storm when some southern communities, such as Ashkelon and Kiryat
Malachi, which are within range of Gazan rockets, were not included.

MK
Amir Peretz, who is running for the Knesset as part of The Tzipi Livni Party,
attacked the map, and Steinitz, who is a member of the rival Likud, for signing
it.

“It’s a stronger testament than a thousand witnesses to the
government’s contempt for the entire periphery area, and especially for the
southern cities that were under missile attack [in November],” Peretz
said.

He further charged that the map encouraged young couples to move to
the West Bank.

Peace Now similarly slammed the list. It offers more
evidence of continued government support for West Bank settlement development,
the organization’s Hagit Ofran said. It is hard to understand how the placement
of settlements on the national priority list go along with the government’s
support for a two-state solution, she said.

Peace Now said the average
wage of people living in West Bank settlements on the list was higher than in
some communities with the pre-1967 lines that had been left off the
list.

According to Peace Now, in 2009, the average monthly salary in the
Efrat settlement, which is on the list, was NIS 7,969, compared with the average
salary in Ashkelon in that same year, which was NIS 5,645.

Efrat Council
head Oded Revivi accused Peace Now of “dumbing down” the issue, saying that
placement on the list was dependent on many factors, including security,
transportation and the municipality’s financial assets.

He noted that
Efrat, for example, lacked an industrial zone and unlike communities within the
Green Line, could not raise the same level of funds from abroad, because many
major Diaspora organizations do not fund communities over the pre-1967
armistice lines.

Dani Dayan, who heads the Council of Jewish Communities
of Judea, Samaria and the Gaza Strip, said the two issues should not be
confused.

Deserving southern cities that were omitted should be included,
he said.

But that has nothing to do with the communities of Judea and
Samaria that deserved to be on the list, Dayan said.

Attacks against the
inclusion of Judea and Samaria on the national priority map are “demagoguery,”
and “political manipulation of the lowest standard,” he said.